I suppose that seems like a stupid question. But having just been through another Christmas shopping (and return) season, I’m not so sure it is. I’ve shopped on line. I’ve been to too many malls too often (I confess it- I hate shopping). In those malls I saw way too much product on sale at way larger discounts than I like to see before Christmas. As an aside, I’m wondering if the increased holiday More…
Archive for 2011
Do Retailers Really Need to Carry All That Inventory?
Saturday, December 31st, 2011Billabong Reports Deteriorating Sales Growth Trend; The Strategy or the Economy?
Wednesday, December 21st, 2011Billabong’s announcement about sales trends since the end of October and the actions it’s taking may portend issues for other companies as well as for Billabong. Let’s take a look at what they announced, what actions they are taking, how they found themselves in this position, and how it relates to the global economic environment. Here’s what they said (you can go here to read the announcement and the transcript of More…
Quik’s October 31st Quarter and Full Year
Saturday, December 17th, 2011I’m going to work without my usual net of an SEC filing this time. That’s because year-end 10Ks always take a long time to come out, and I don’t want to wait that long to look at Quik’s results. I’ll review the 10K when it does show up. Right now, we’ll go with the press release and conference call transcript. Not to be old fashioned here, but I think I’ll avoid proforma adjusted More…
PacSun Makes Progress; Third Quarter Results, Store Closings, and Financing
Thursday, December 8th, 2011When I looked at PacSun’s previous quarter I wrote, “The question in my mind, which hasn’t changed much since the last time I took a look at PacSun, is whether there’s enough uniqueness so they can afford to implement it [their strategy] given the economy and the company’s financial circumstances.” Whether or not their strategy is a good one, they were becoming too cash constrained to implement it. If you were More…
Zumiez’s October 29 Quarter; Consistently Pursuing a Solid Strategy
Wednesday, December 7th, 2011I know I’ve written about it before, but let’s review the pillars of Zumiez’s strategy as I see them before we get to the numbers. Here’s the link to the 10Q if you’re interested. Find and retain employees who are actively committed to the action sports lifestyle and make sure they are customer service focused. I suspect this might restrain their growth sometimes, but that’s okay. Have a wide selection of established More…
Orange 21′s September 30 Quarter: Sales are Up, But So Is the Loss
Sunday, December 4th, 2011This is one of the few times where it makes sense to start on the balance sheet to really understand what’s going on. It shows stockholders’ equity of a negative $4.3 million. How, you might ask, are they paying their bills? If you look under liabilities, you’ll see a “Note payable to stockholder” of $10.5 million. That $10.5 million is owed to Costa Brava. Costa Brava “beneficially owns” approximately 50% (depends on how you More…
VF’s Quarterly Result; Why is it We Bother?
Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011We review VF’s results because they own brands we are interested in. Same reason we review Jarden’s, PPR’s and other companies. But we rarely get much information on those brands because they are part of a larger segment by which the corporations represents its business. And, in the case of VF, we get literally nothing on Reef because it’s so small that its contribution to the action sports and outdoor segment isn’t significant More…
What Will You Do When Your Greek Receivables are in Devalued Drachmas?
Thursday, November 17th, 2011There are lots of public company quarterly reports I should be writing about, but I am going to step off that track and think, for a bit, the unthinkable. Or at least it was the unthinkable. But at this point the Eurozone seems to be moving towards two choices, either of which has huge implications for managing any international business. Let’s review for a minute. What are the three things you can More…
Skullcandy’s Strong Quarter; It’s Amazing What an IPO Can Do for Your Balance Sheet
Sunday, November 13th, 2011My favorite footnote in Skullcandy’s 10Q for the quarter ended September 30 is footnote nine and specifically the table on long term debt (Yes, I know it’s kind of sad that I have favorite footnotes). It shows no long term debt at the quarter’s end compared to $73.4 million on December 31, 2010. They raised $77.5 million through the IPO, and you can see what they used it for. Equity is now $92 More…
